The king of Hastinapur, Vichitravirya, died rather prematurely, leaving behind his two wives, Ambika and Ambalika. His mother, Satyavati, suddenly found herself in one hell of a family crisis.
She would have asked Bhishma to step in, had he not been bound by his own vows and circumstances. So instead, she turned to her other son, Vyasa, and asked him to take responsibility for Ambika and Ambalika.
And thus began the next generation.
From Ambika was born Dhritarashtra — blind from birth. From Ambalika came Pandu.
Since Dhritarashtra was born blind, the throne of Hastinapur passed him by. The royal jackpot therefore landed in Pandu’s lap.
Pandu then married Kunti, Krishna’s aunt. Apparently one wife wasn’t enough for royal administration, so he married a second time as well — this time to Madri.
Now Pandu had a serious hunting addiction. The man would see something moving in the bushes and basically think:
“Whatever. Shoot first, identify species later.”
One day, Pandu went hunting in the forest.
Living in that forest was a sage named Kindama. On that particular day, Sage Kindama and his wife had transformed themselves into a stag and a doe and were, shall we say, extremely busy with some very private husband-and-wife business.
Pandu saw the two deer.
And despite seeing exactly what they were doing, he fired his arrows and killed them.
